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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 7, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Vote ‘yes’ for health district levy
Local police, fire
district levies also
worthy of consideration
he only countywide tax measure
on the May 15 primary ballot is
a $3 million levy for the Clatsop
Care Health District.
The district operates three long-term
care facilities in Astoria and Warrenton,
plus an in-home care agency. Measure
4-192 would allow it to address deferred
maintenance needs at its Clatsop Care
Center — built as a hospital in 1926 —
and expand services at its memory care
facility.
The levy would fund a generator
backup, technology upgrades and security
measures — a new system would allow
staff to monitor residents who wander
from the facility.
The health district also hopes to pur-
chase one bus for the care center and
another one for the memory care center. It
currently has one old, lightly used bus at
its disposal. Priced about $80,000 apiece,
the new buses would allow the transport
of residents to medical appointments and
also create opportunities for trips outside
the memory care facility.
Lastly, the revenue would fund a pro-
gram at the memory care center that is
used in only one other facility in the state.
Using the Montessori Method, an instruc-
tor would establish a basic curriculum and
City officials say the police department
is having difficulty keeping pace with
population growth and development, and
that there will be cuts if the levy does not
pass.
This is not an increase. Public safety
is the most important service government
provides, in our opinion.
We recommend you vote “yes.”
T
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop Care Center in 2016.
allow patients to organize their own tasks.
The five-year levy would impose a
23-cent tax per $1,000 of assessed prop-
erty value, according to the county asses-
sor’s office. That translates to $46 more
per year for a $200,000 home.
The health district has turned around
its finances since hiring Aidan Health
Services, a private management firm
based in Salem. After finishing last fiscal
year with a deficit of roughly $600,000,
management reported a $24,000 surplus
through March of this year.
Now that the finances are in order,
it’s time to address the district’s pressing
needs. The money would allow improve-
ments to both its aging facilities and resi-
dents’ quality of life.
It’s always a tough sell to ask tax-
payers to reach deeper into their pock-
ets, especially with large bond measures
looming on the horizon this fall for a new
county jail, school projects in Astoria and
Warrenton, and the South County’s Sunset
Empire Recreation District.
But we believe the health district’s
request is reasonable, and deserves your
“yes” vote.
Warrenton police
Warrenton voters are asked to renew a
five-year levy to help finance the police
department.
The tax is 28 cents per $1,000 of
assessed property value, according to the
city, or $56 a year for a $200,000 home.
The money pays for a full-time police offi-
cer and partially finances another officer.
The existing levy expires at the end of
June 2019. The city has had a police
operations levy since 1999.
Rural fire districts
Voters in two local rural fire protection
districts are asking to renew their five-year
tax levies.
The Lewis and Clark district seeks
$887,000, a 20 percent increase from past
measures. That’s 90 cents per $1,000 of
assessed property value, or $180 per year
for a $200,000 home.
The money would go for maintaining
emergency services, paying employees,
replacing fire equipment and other opera-
tional costs.
The Clatskanie district, which extends
into Clatsop County by Bradley Summit,
hopes to renew a $5.3 million levy at the
same rate as the previous measure, cit-
ing similar cost needs. That’s $1.25 per
$1,000 of assessed property value, or $188
per year for a $150,000 home.
Rural fire districts are generally a
good bargain. Without the protection they
afford, rates for homeowners insurance
can become astronomical.
Both levies are also worthy of consid-
eration for “yes” votes.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
British cyclists pedal the coast for a cause
T
hey told me the sun came out
as soon as they crossed the
Washington state border into
Oregon. What a fitting metaphor for two
angels on bicycles — burly Union Jack
angels — but angels nonetheless.
Sam Jack and Craig Craven — he
goes by “Wes,” like the horror film
director — were among the British who
fought the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Craven, 34, married and the father
of two, is from Wales. Jack, 31, is from
north London. They arrived on the North
Coast this spring as part of a cycling tour
from Vancouver to San
Diego. The mission
is to support Help for
Heroes, a British coun-
terpart to America’s
Wounded Warrior
Project, a group Jack
knows well.
R.J. MARX
Craven and Jack
served together in the
Royal Engineers bomb disposal unit.
Familiarly known as “sappers,” the teams
provide essential support to all areas of
the British Army in peacetime and on
operations.
Over the course of their military
careers, Jack and Craven served in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Germany,
Cyprus and Canada.
Craven spent 10 years on duty in
Afghanistan. Jack did five, until 2010,
when he took a round to the head. A bul-
let went in through Jack’s eye and around
to his brain, about a millimeter away
from the brain stem.
Initially, doctors gave Jack only a 10
percent chance of survival.
“Then it went to 20 percent,” Craven
said.
Of Jack’s fighting team of 120, 12
others were injured and one died.
Jack received serious, life-changing
injuries. “I’m very happy to be here
walking and talking, let alone cycling
through the coast.”
Help for Heroes
Jack was hospitalized for three months;
rehabilitation extended for three years.
“That’s when Help for Heroes took over,”
he said.
Help for Heroes is credited with help-
ing more than 17,000 veterans. “Together,
building lives,” is their motto.
Founder Bryn Parry served for 10
years in the Royal Green Jackets before
leaving the military in 1985 to become a
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Tom Dideum of the local bicycle group,
Old Spokes, left, with Wes Craven and Sam
Jack on a stop as they ride along the coast.
Sam Jack
Sam Jack in uniform.
cartoonist, a career he maintained for 23
years.
In 2007, Parry and his wife Emma
met wounded vets in an Afghan military
hospital, inspiring the couple’s mission
to help those with injuries and illnesses
attributable to their service in the British
Armed Forces. Help for Heroes runs four
recovery centers in England.
Through the organization, wounded
veterans participate in the annual Invictus
Games, where athletes from 18 countries
compete in 10 different sports — includ-
ing bicycling.
Because of the support he received
from Help for Heroes, Jack decided he
wanted to give back to the organization.
After “too many beers” one night,
Craven proposed the ride across America.
“Sam said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Craven
recalled.
Craven didn’t own a bicycle, much less
have experience in bicycle maintenance.
“We didn’t even know how to change
a tire,” he admitted.
They contacted a local British cycle
shop for a “massive maintenance day.”
Planning was relatively simple: “We
booked our first nights in Vancouver and
our last two nights in LA,” Jack said.
Then the hard part began.
“This a massive challenge for us both
as we don’t normally cycle, never mind
cycle touring,” Craven said. “Especially
for Sam. His injury knocked his confi-
dence. I’m hoping that this trip will show
him and other people with injuries that
they are still capable of amazing things.”
The ride is self-funded, with a strict
budget of about $34 per day for food and
accommodation for the 45-day trip.
Jack, who had been advised by
his doctors not to join a fundraising
expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, didn’t
even consult his physician this time. “I
didn’t want the answer. I kept this one to
myself.”
Good day, Oregon
As they planned their tour, Jack and
Craven reached out to contacts in America,
including Seaside’s Al Smiles, who sub-
sequently introduced them to Gearhart’s
Tom Dideum, of the local biking group Old
Spokes.
The group provided logistical and moral
support, Dideum said as he accompanied
Craven and Jack on their leg from Seaside
to Cannon Beach. “What they’re doing is
pretty amazing.”
With a shoestring budget, the cyclists
are “relying on the kindness of strangers,
really,” Craven said.
So far, they have found assistance
from police, fire, military veterans and
“all-round good people” in the course of
their ride.
In Raymond, Washington, they’d been
washed out for days. After making a call,
they found lodging in a local pastor’s
house.
Their stay began with a birthday party
for a 4-year-old, with 20 young guests, a
celebration followed by the milking of a
cow.
Craven said he is “pretty sure”
Washington state is the hidden land of
Atlantis.
“It never stops raining,” he said. “We
come into Oregon and literally the sun
shines.”
As the bicyclists prepared to head down
the coast, they welcomed the challenges
ahead.
“Yeah, we’re stubborn enough to do it,”
Craven said as he donned his helmet, pre-
paring to head south along U.S. Highway
101.
“The good news is once you get over
the hill at Neahkahnie Mountain, it’s all
downhill,” Dideum said.
“I’ll just walk,” Jack said.
Jack and Craven said they hope to cover
50 miles a day, sightseeing along the way.
As we read headlines this week, the
ride of the two British veterans reminds us
of the painful toll of war, not only of lives
lost, but those on the road to recovery.
Two suicide bombings in Kabul killed
25 people, among them, 10 journalists.
About 14,000 American troops remain in
Afghanistan, a conflict in its 17th year.
Those stationed there — American, British
or international — risk their lives daily for
our safety.
“Not a day goes by that I haven’t
thanked God for keeping me alive and
giving me this second chance at living,”
Jack said.
As of this writing, the cyclists have
raised more than twice their funding goal.
To provide support, visit justgiving.
com; search for “Canada to Mexico: the
long ride down.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.